Coffee and Bananas

Fairtrade coffee and bananas of course! With Fairtrade Fortnight upon us the final preparations are being made for the Coffee Morning next Saturday and the Go Bananas event the following Friday.
The coffee morning in Stockton Parish Church Hall is at 10 on Saturday 28th February and the Mayor of Stockton will launch our new Free Directory - come along, enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, browse the stall and pick up your free copy.
Go Bananas is an outdoor event at noon on Friday 6th March. It's part of an attempt to set a world record for the number of people eating a Fairtrade Banana in a 24 hour period. Right round the world producers and purchasers will be eating their Fairtrade banana. The numbers will be recorded and registered with the Fairtrade Foundation. So far over 124,000 have signed up to be part of it. In Stockton the Mayor of Stockton will be starting the Tees Valley event and taking a giant banana by train to Hartlepool to hand on the baton. The finishing line will be in Middlesbrough's Captain Cook Square on Saturday morning. Do join in if you're anywhere near. Bring your own banana or buy one on the spot.
As well as organising posters and banana costumes there's been the small matter of where to store 20+ boxes of Directories until they are distributed! Problem solved thanks to Stockton Council's officers who found a space in a building I didn't know existed - but I've only been a councillor for less than 8 years.
And of course, in the meantime there's a European Parliamentary election coming up and so leaflets to be delivered and work to be done for that. Being part of a team doing such things spreads the load and the spring sunshine certainly helps.